Radley College Chapel – Brick Specials

 

Radley College Grade 2* Listed Chapel Extension

 

Over the years All Brick and Stone have built up a reputation and relationship with Radley College Boarding School and have been involved with many areas of renovating and newbuild on the school grounds. In 2018, the opportunity arose to come on board with another project for the extension of the east end of Radley College’s Chapel. The overall brief was to provide a greater focus on the sanctuary and to provide long term continuation of the chapel’s daily service. The architectural detailing and material selection were all designed and driven to ensure there was unity with the existing chapel both internally and externally.

Our team were approached to assist with the overall specification and after many site visits with both the client and architect, a decision was made about supplying the specialist materials required for such an intricate job. Many samples were viewed against the original building in order to match up the brickwork. A blend of handmade bricks was agreed along with the colour of the machine made bricks however, upon inspection it was decided that externally the machine made brick would require the texture to be more in keeping with the existing brickwork. This was challenging but after several attempts, a final decision was made and approved in 2019. Due to the polychromatic external brickwork of the building, it was really important to ensure the coursed layers were right in both texture and colour.

The chapel extension also consists of more intricate brick specials than the original building however, by the beginning of 2020 they were all agreed. To make the nearly 80 specials on the project, 50 different brick moulds were needed to achieve the brick specials required for the building in both textures and for both the internal and external work. The design process proved challenging and had to overcome some issues with the size and complexity of some of the specials early on, these were then redesigned and approved. The overall extension consists of a huge amount of brickwork detailing some unusual shapes and we had to ensure the specials were of a quality finish. Along with the external brickwork we were also asked to assist with producing a brick to match those used internally, these were required for the four apses and also for the springers of the primary main arch to the extension.

The chapel extension was completed and finished in 2021 and through its design challenges, stands a stunning piece of architecture that sympathetically blends in unity with the original grade 2* listed building. The client, Radley College are very happy and we are proud to have been involved with such a fantastic project.

 

Radley College Chapel – Supreme Winner of the Brick Awards and Craftsmanship Award